Long regarded as male-dominated, the female demographic in fly fishing is growing, “Patience, precision casting and experience are paramount. Brute strength is almost always detrimental. There’s good reason women have returned to their rightful place on the river enjoying one of humankind’s most enduring pastimes,” writes Tom Boyd in The Denver Post.

Fall and winter are the seasons of small flies, and John Merwin in Field & Stream’s “Honest Angler” column offers some great tips on hooking and fighting fish on flies size 20 and smaller.

Low water levels in Betsie Bay are impacting salmon populations trying to enter the Betsie River to spawn. “What we’re asking right now is that anglers avoid walking out on those flats” says Mark Tonello, fisheries biologist for Michigan’s Department of Natural Resources. “What happens is, even when they’re not intending to, a lot of times their spooking the fish and the fish end up beaching themselves and dying.”